WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today joined Finance Committee Democrats in boycotting the Committee votes on Steven Mnuchin and Rep. Tom Price. Without a quorum, the vote was delayed and the nominees were unable to move forward.
Brown and fellow Dems are demanding the nominees provide responses to requests on their business dealings that have remained unanswered and come back before the committee and answer questions about false testimony given to the committee.
This Sunday, the Columbus Dispatch reported new analysis of Ohio foreclosure documents that reveal that Treasury Nominee Steven Mnuchin provided false testimony during his Senate confirmation hearing last week. Mnuchin claimed OneWest Bank – where he served as chairman and CEO – had not robo-signed documents, but the Dispatch found dozens of foreclosure cases in Franklin County alone had been robo-signed.
“Mnuchin profited off of kicking people out of their homes and then gave false testimony about his bank's abusive practices,” said Brown. “He cannot be trusted to make decisions about policies as personal to working Ohioans as their taxes and retirement.”
Just yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Congressman Tom Price, the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, had received a privileged offer to purchase biomedical stock at a discount, even though he told Congress that was not the case.
“If Congressman Price is willing to mislead Congress during his own confirmation hearing, there’s no guessing what else he’d be willing to mislead the public about when it comes to their health insurance and earned Medicare benefits,” said Brown.
Earlier this month, Brown grilled Price during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee asking pointed questions about whether or not Price and President Trump actually had a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, which has insured more than 900,000 Ohioans.
###
